1. Technical Field
This application relates to a system for communicating information from a server via a mobile communication device. In particular, this application relates to a system for receiving information by a mobile communication device and for providing information by a server.
2. Related Art
Mobile communication devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA's) with GSM capabilities or automotive head units with a GSM module may be used for acquiring information in different ways. An individual may use one of these devices to request information services, for example, to contact a travel agent to ask for flight information or to call directory assistance. Increasingly, part of or all the requested information services are provided by automated systems. In many cases, a customer places a call to requests a service and at some point in the process is connected to a computer that provides the information.
In the directory assistance example, a customer may use a mobile phone to call the directory assistance number. An individual may initially answer the call to inquire as to the listing requested, however, the requested information is actually provided by a computer. Increasingly, the user is directly connected to a server or a computer that itself is configured to engage in a dialog with the user. During such a dialog, the user is prompted to enter or ask for the information he or she seeks. For example, many airlines have automated systems that permit the user to ask for and receive flight arrival and departure information by responding to a series of questions or prompts by the automated system.
A user may communicate with an automated information service in a number of different ways. Generally, at the beginning of a service request call or inquiry, the information service communicates a predetermined prompt that was stored in the system asking the user what information the user is requesting. The user's response to the prompt may be made in a number of different ways. For example, one or several keys of the mobile communication device may be pressed. Thus, a key or a combination of keys may identify the kind of information requested.
Alternatively, a user's input may be transmitted acoustically. In this case, the user's speech is transmitted to and received by the information server on which speech recognition is performed. After processing the user's recognized speech, the requested information is provided to the user.
In prior systems, the processing of the user's input and the resulting output is performed on the server in accordance with a corresponding dialog script running on the server. This has the drawback that each time a user makes an input or an output comes from the server, the corresponding data must be transmitted from the server to the mobile communication device. Since a large amount of customers may use the same server at the same time, the increased load on the server may result in a delay. Additionally, if speech recognition is performed on the server, a signal with large bandwidth has to be transmitted and the quality of the signal may be considerably reduced when it arrives at the server, thus rendering speech recognition more difficult.
Thus, there is a need for a system for receiving information via a mobile communication device and for providing information by a server that reduces the server load and requires less data transmission bandwidth.